A cafe owner who was preparing to close her business as she could not afford to stay open has said she is "over the moon" after a donor stepped in to help.
Gráinne Carson runs the Patisserie G dessert shop in west Belfast but recently she had to let all her staff go because of rising electricity bills.
Her cafe was due to close its doors for the final time last Saturday.
However, the family of a Belfast-born businessman has now offered to pay her electricity bills until January 2023.
"It's been an absolute rollercoaster," Ms Carson told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.
She said the last-minute reprieve felt like the plot of a film, but she felt very lucky that her business was rescued from closure.
"Someone had posted the other day that it was like one of those Christmas movies... someone comes in and saves the day," Ms Carson said.
"I love those movies but it means much more because it's real life.
"It's not a movie - we are living in a crisis here and I got lucky because I've got help, but there are so many small businesses that are just drowning at the minute."
The generous gesture came from the McGowan family, whose father is a senior figure in a London-based manufacturing firm and has links to west Belfast.
"He was born in Amcomri Street in Beechmount, where I have the patisserie across the street," Ms Carson explained.
She said Mr McGowan's rise in business had been "phenomenal".
"He's a CEO of a major company, the Amcomri Group. His son reached out and says: 'We want to help, just give back to the area'.
"To be fair I thought it was too good to be true, but it's very true."
'There was cheering'
Ms Carson's cafe, which opened in August 2021, had very much become part of her local community, hosting a regular breakfast club, a book club, and an entrepreneurs' club for local children.
She had already organised a "goodbye party" for her customers on Saturday night, but the McGowan family told her to go ahead with the event, and instead it became a surprise "staying open" party.
"A lot of people showed up, the place was packed and I just came out and told everyone. There was cheering, the emotions were crazy," Ms Carson said.
"At the start of the entrepreneurs' club I said: 'Look, it doesn't matter where you live, you can be anything you want to be, but now there's proof."
She said her benefactor had proved it and the children "have someone really, really good to look up to now".
Ms Carson added that while she is not "out of the woods yet" in terms of her financial concerns, the McGowans' offer would give her breathing space to restart her business.
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September 29, 2022 at 04:38PM
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Cost of living: Belfast cafe saved from closure as donor steps in - BBC
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